Cruising the Tonle Sap River

We left Siam Reap on Monday morning and had a 5 hour bus ride to reach the point where our River cruise was to start. Along the way we stopped at a market (for a 'happy' stop or as we say a potty break) that is famous for cooked bugs! No, we did not eat any of them on the advice of our guide. Seems the oil they are fried in can be lethal to our stomachs.

We were greeted on the RV AmaDara cruise ship with food then it took off up river toward Tonle Sap Lake. We can't actually go into the lake because the opening is too shallow but there are some places they want us to see up stream. It's a Beautiful river! The Tonle Sap is a major tributary of the Mekong River which we will join later this week.

The propeller on our boat fouled on one of the many fish nets so the driver took off his clothes & used a machete to cut it off.

Tuesday dawned warm with lots of fishing boat puttering past us as the sun rose. Everyone loaded onto a boat that took us up river to view the village of Kampong Chhnang where houses are on stilts lining the river. Most were on 20 foot stilts since the rivers will rise over 14 feet during the rainy season that runs from a May to October. Over 56,000 live along the river banks or in the floating villages in this area.

Later in the day we pulled up to shore at Koh Chen where the people made silver and copper jewelry, plates, bowls, etc. We also visited an elementary school learning about how the country is trying to advance after The Killing Fields by the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot killed 96% of the intellectuals in Cambodia. The saying here is that those who know something will teach those who know little and those who know little teach those who know nothing.

Angkor Wat at Dawn

We got up at 4 AM this morning so we could be at The Angkor Wat Temple before the dawn lightens the sky so that we could experience the magic of seeing the temple's towers emerging in the morning light. Sunrise was at 6:45 but we had the best shots between 6:15 and 6:30.

Because we had he best view site we also had the closest path to enter the temple ahead of the hoards. It was estimated that over 10,000 people came for sunrise and another 20-30,000 would visit the Temple today.

Angkor Wat represents the heart and soul of Cambodia. It was built in the mid-1100's as a Hindu temple honoring the gods Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma but in the 16th century the Buddhist converted it into a Hindu temple. Because of that it is better preserved than most of the others in this area.

We entered the temple on one level, had a short climbe to another level where the royalty and priests would have lived. They built 4 huge ponds to collect water for the dry season on this level.

The next level was to take you to heaven. The common people would climb 37 steps to the top but Royalty had 45 steps. A wooden staircase with handrails is necessary in this age, just image not having that and climbing with offerings for the Gods!

The shear size of the upper temple was astounding. All surfaces were covered in carvings, massive roofs covered the walkways and stone pillars in every window. The whole building is surrounded by a covered walk where the history of the people has been carved into the walls.

Over one million people would have lived inside the city walls that surrounds Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and several other minor temples. To visit them all would take days and we are here only 2 days. Truely amazing place!

Angkor Thom

Today is New Year's Day for the Vietnamese and Chinese but since we are in Cambodia it is just another weekend with a few more people in town for the holiday. 

We are in the city of Siam Reap, Cambodia which means Hiag Army. It is on a hill and is where the Khmer beat the Thai army in 1000 AD. With 270,000 people it is one of the smaller cities we have visited.

The temples here here were started in the 800's, destroyed and rebuilt 300-400 years later. Angkor means capital or city. Most of the temple areas were built inside of a moat with walls surrounding the city. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom held over a million people in the 1200-1300's - more than in London or in Mexico.

Angkor Thom (meaning Large City) covered 3 square kilometers and had 5 gates. The west gate was for prisoners, the north gate was for monks, the South Gate for common folks, and two on the east with one for funerals and the second east gate was the Victory Gate for the soldiers.

The gates were guarded by 54 demons and 54 gods holding the snake god, Naga, with its 7 heads. Inside the city were 49 towers with faces on each side. The central tower had 8 sides with 8 faces. The faces represented the king who built the temple.

One temple inside Angkor Thom was the Bayon Temple. The wall around the Temple was carved with scenes of every day life of the people from war on the river with Muslim (Cham), Khmer, and Chinese; a hospital, cooking, games, and much more.

The Elephant Terrace was part of the Kings palace at one time and shows carvings of elephants. The wall is 350 meters long. There are also carvings depicting Garuda, a god with a mans body and a goat head.

The Ta Prom Temple is featured in the movie " Tomb Raiders " staring Angelina Jolee. Trees have grown up through the walls of the temple and appear to be holding it together.

A temple outside of the Angkor Wat complex is the Banteay Srei (prounced Bawn-tee sway) or City of a Woman. This Hindu temple honors Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma. It is made of pink limestone and is very intricately carved with feminine figures.

A Pretty Lagoon

Happy New Years Eve!

Early this morning I tried Thai Chi then we boarded a sampan at 8 am to explore a lagoon called Hang Luon, located inside an island. We glided through a short cave-like tunnel into a beautiful pool surrounded by high cliffs. One monkey came down to the water's edge to collect fruit from the tourists.

As we ate ate a late breakfast the Junk headed back to shore and then a bus ride to the Hanoi airport for a flight to Siam Reap, Cambodia.

Ha Long Bay

As we are nearing the Vietnamese New Year, Tet, people are busy preparing for the celebrations and going to their homes to be with family so the traffic on our route from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay has been light. New Year's Day is Saturday January 28 and the people have many special foods to prepare, fresh florals decorations to buy and put up, and cleaning in preparation for company.

Our Junk holds about 26 people and 10 crew. It is bigger and more accommodating than we expected. As we have lunch we cruise out to the islands of Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO heritage site since 1984. The Bay covers 345 square miles and contains almost 2000 islands with 100 limestone caves. All the islands are named. The most recent movie shot here is "King King" coming out in March.

We visited the the largest cave- Hang Sung Sot - which mean Most Amazing Cave; climbed 400 steps to the top of Ti Top Island, named for a Russian cosmonaut; and wadded in the waters of The China Sea. Then we spent the night on our Junk among the islands.

During the evening we dressed as Vietnamese royalty, tasted wine and learned how to make fried spring rolls.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi is over 1000 years old, has 6 million people, and 5 million motorbikes. Crossing the streets is very scary but the trick is to never stop moving!!

We visited the Hoa Lo Prison first thing. This is known by Americans as the Hanoi Hilton where over 500 POWs were imprisioned during the Vietnam War from 1964-1973. Most of the tour was focused on the Inprisonment of Vietnamese dissidents by the French in the 15 some years up to 1954.

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is surrounded by a huge open square. We learned about his life as the father of communism in Vietnam.

The Confucian Temple is known as the Temple of Literature because it was used as a university from the time it was built in 1070 to 1802. The turtle is used a lot in he temple to represent long life. One exhibit shows the turtle carrying large stone tablets with graduated scholars names on them. Inside the temple is Confucious and his four disciples.

The most fun thing we did was to ride in a 'rickshaw' through the old town markets and in rush hour traffic with hundreds of scooters buzzing around us! This was followed by an interesting water puppet show. The puppeteers stood in thigh high water, hidden by bamboo screens and manipulated the figures that are attached on the end of long poles so that the people, dragons, turtles or boats 'swam' in the water.

This has not been a good day for me. I fell out of bed in the middle of the night and wrenched my back. So I took ibuprofen all day! Then I dropped my phone and shattered the glass front! With help from the concierge we found an Apple repair store and got it fixed in between tours. We also had to get a new data card for the camera since we have taken way too many pictures!

Hill Tribes of Thailand

Before leaving Thailand, we drove to the outskirts of Chiang Rai where the King has established a village for the tribes of peoples who lived in the mountains. There are four tribes co-existing here using their talents in weaving, cross stitch, painting and agricultural to sell their crafts and foods and makine a living for themselves. They used to work for the heroine industry but the king is trying to shut it down.

The Long-neck tribe, called Kayan, produced beautiful weaving. They wrap their women's necks in copper tubing to give the illusion of long necks but in reality they are pushing their shoulders down. The Big Ear tribe are called Kayaw. They put large rings in the women's ear lobes. The Yao tribe are excellent cross stitchers. They also believe in free sex. And the Dirty tribe was not in evidence.

The rest of of the day was spent flying to Hanoi via Bangkok, arriving around 9 pm. The traffic here is horrendous!! There are almost as many registered scooter drivers as the population of Hanoi! That is a bit of an exaggeration but it looked like it.